Search This Site

VINTAGE EX-YU

Popular Posts

Europe's largest low cost airline, Ryanair, will enter the Bosnian market this year by introducing flights to Banja Luka. It comes following protracted talks with the government of the Entity of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The carrier will introduce two weekly services from Charleroi Airport in Belgium, each Monday and Friday, starting October 29, as well as from Memmingen in Germany from October 30, each Tuesday and Saturday. The Prime Minister of the entity, Željka Cvijanović, has said that "several additional destinations will also be launched" by the airline in the coming period. Tickets for the new routes are already available for purchase through the carrier's website.
Commenting on the new route, Ryanair’s Sales and Marketing Executive for Belgium, Helene Begasse, said, “We are pleased to announce a new Brussels Charleroi to Banja Luka route commencing this November. This new route marks Ryanair's entry into Bosnia and Herzegovina, and wi…

The world's largest carrier, American Airlines, is considering introducing seasonal flights to Dubrovnik. According to the "TangoSix" portal, the company is in talks with the airport over a seasonal service from Philadelphia. A decision on the matter is expected within the next month. American operates a number of seasonal flights to Europe from its Philadelphia hub including Athens, Barcelona, Budapest, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Lisbon, Prague, Shannon and Venice. This year, the airline expanded its reach from Philadelphia into Europe with seasonal flights to Budapest and Prague. Both are operated by its Boeing 767-300 aircraft. The move is seen as affirming American’s commitment to Philadelphia as a trans-Atlantic gateway.
Dubrovnik Airport has identified the United States and South Korea as two far-away markets which could sustain services to the coastal city. Speaking to EX-YU Aviation News, Dubrovnik Airport's General Manager, Frano Luetić, said, "These two far-…

Air Serbia's US permit process advances

Get link

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Other Apps

Air Serbia undergoing FAA certification prior to permit approval

The United States Department of Transportation (DoT) has granted Air Serbia rights to operate flights to the United States with its own aircraft and crew yesterday evening but will decide on the airline's permit request after it completes the FAA 129 certification process it is currently undertaking. Furthermore, the DoT has granted the Serbian carrier rights to codeshare on Air Berlin flights from Germany to the United States. Speaking to EX-YU Aviation News, Caitlin Harvey, from the Department, explains, "Today we granted Air Serbia’s amended exemption request to conduct own-metal US services. We concurrently granted Air Berlin’s request for codeshare authority to display Air Serbia’s code on certain Air Berlin Germany - US services. So, Air Serbia now has economic authority to operate both via its own metal and via codeshare. Before beginning any own metal services, it must complete the FAA 129 certification process".

On November 17, the DoT limited Air Serbia's operations to the United States exclusively to codeshare and wet-lease flights, preventing it from operating services with its own aircraft. However, this obstacle has now been overcome. "On November 17, we granted Air Serbia’s exemption request to serve the United States, but limited the authority to its codeshare arrangement with Air Berlin. These operations involved the display of the Air Serbia code on Air Berlin metal", Ms Harvey says. "Soon after we took the above action, Air Serbia began its FAA 129 certification process and requested the amendment of its exemption to remove the codeshare/wet-lease restriction so that it may serve the United States with its own metal. In addition, it requested that we take action on its pending permit request". The Serbian carrier intends to launch five weekly flights from Belgrade to New York's JFK Airport from June next year with an Airbus A330-200 aircraft.

Air Serbia has stated that it initially intends to maintain services to the United States by placing its “JU” designator code on flights operated by Air Berlin from Dusseldorf to New York and from Berlin to New York, Chicago and Miami, which it has been cleared to do. Furthermore, the carrier has said that, once it launches its own five weekly services, passengers will be able to use these codeshare flights the other two days of the week. Air Serbia's CEO, Dane Kondić, said, “The launch of the Belgrade - New York non-stop service is a fantastic example of the positive impact of the Air Serbia strategic plan, which is progressing well and continues to be on-track to meet and surpass its targets".

Comments

The application and approval processes for FAR Part 129 certification entail lengthy, multi-stage reviews beginning with the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), followed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and lastly the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), all necessary to determine that a carrier’s systems meet all the high safety standards of the FAA regulations for issuance of Operations Specifications.

Worst case scenario, JU could always wet lease the ac say from 9W if JU doesnt get full approval. I think the next round of expansion for JU will soon be heard because it will be needed to feed the flights better. Logically anyway.

It would go down extremely well since most of passengers on these flights will not be 'Balkan people' (if you mean ex-Yu) but people from Israel, Greece, Turkey, Romania, Lebanon who all couldn't care less to the metal being used. In the worst case some Serbian speaking crew could get a Jet Airways contract.

"Knowing the mentality of the 'average' Balkans person, do you think paying to fly with JU and ending up flying an Indian airline would go down well?"

I really dont think this will be an issue for most people. I have traveled with 9W this year and the overall impression is great since they have relatively new and clean planes. Decent IFE and really nothing "Indian" about them except that there is tons of Bollywood movies and livery. ASL would most likely use its own staff on these flights as well in this scenario.But I do get what you are saying, even if everything is great there will always be a few people complaining.

@ Aэrologic, are you kidding about Israelis flying to JFK via BEG? Do you have an idea about the number of flights between TLV and NY? El-Al alone have 4 DAILY flights to JFK + flights to Newark. Delata Airlines also flies to JFK. And trust me El-Al don't fly to JFK with A332. They fly mainly with 747. So, the capacity between TLV and NY is enourmous. Don't dream of getting transfer passengers from there...

Have you checked prices on those direct flights by El Al and Delta recently? Tickets under 1200€ are quite rare, under 1000€ even more so. So yes, I also expect at least a small percentage of that huge market to connect via BEG and save a few hundred bucks.

Why not? If they connect via cramped IST and all other places, why wouldn't they via BEG? After all, are you aware of the number of Danes connecting in Belgrade to Asia despite all the more direct options from Copenhagen? Clearly you seem to be missing a a thing or two or have not a single idea about how modern aviation works. Same story has been going around a thousand times and yet both Croats, Germans, French and Albanians connect through Belgrade to all the places in ASL's network. Israel should be one of the prime focus markets for Air Serbia's flights to the US.

Not really. We are just giggling because we know what a financial disaster this will be.Antidepressants will be needed next year when the subventions are extended and when more of our money is wasted on this vanity project.

@10:16I wonder what will you do if subventions end next year. Would you do a favour to your country then and shut the fuck up?NYC flights are not going to be profitable anyway and everyone knows that, but the problem with you haters is that you would actually like them not to be profitable and the only thing you live for is to see how they are not saying you were right. Just look at your comment and how pathetic you are.

Right. So you call me pathetic and then you say that you agree with me that these flights are not going to be profitable. Interesting.

I am going to be pathetic as long as my tax money are being spent on this vanity project called Air Serbia. I would be more than happy if the subventions end or if Etihad assumes responsibility for their investment and actually gives some money.

In the end the whole JU-EY deal was such a rip off and frankly the whole point of this was to move away from the financial black hole called Jat which we did not. Even today politicians have too much say in the way the airline is run, New York flights being the best example.

If Dane and Vucic want to brag how ASL is a regional leader and how it's the best thing to have happened to Serbia then at least get your finances in order before bragging.

According to Sabre demand data, an estimated 143,000 bi-directional O&D passengers flew between Serbia and the United States last year, around 392 a day. This is a growing market with traffic increasing by an average annual rate of 5.7 per cent between 2005 and 2014 and growing a massive 23.3 per cent over the last calendar year.

New York is the largest single United States market from/to Serbia with approximately 26,000 annual passengers, just ahead of Chicago with 25,000 passengers and followed by Los Angeles with 11,000 and Newark and Washington with over 9,000 passengers.

@10:44ASL will face problems if it is not owned by the government and has to be profitable or close.As long as the government is there to cover the losses and make Tesla offer them big discounts ASL will be fine.

True but the issue with New York is that competition is fierce there and you can already fly on Lufthansa there for 415 Euros! I mean, JU failed in BUD and LCA, what makes them think they can beat OS, LH, LO, SU, TK, AZ, LX, AF, KL... who all carry passengers from BEG to North America.

@10:43The pathetic thing about you is that you act like you would actually like Air Serbia to go bankrupt and do anything that will enable you to say "hey look at me I am so smart they failed I was right".

New York flights are not going to be profitable at the begging and every fucking idiot on this planet knows that, you didn't discover something new, many airlines which today have a large market between their hubs and the US were not getting money from these flights at the begging. But people like you would rether just write nonsense on the internet and say how everything is just going to fucking die and collapse.

Etihad is not going to give much money to ASL as long as Serbian Government ownes 51% of the airline itself. And they were giving pretty much a big amount of money to Air Serbia, go inform yourself or at least think a little bit with your brain before saying such bullshit.

Yet people like you say how Air Serbia cutting frequencies this winter is horrible, but even if it didn't cut them you would already find a way to say how everything about them is terrifying without even giving a suggestion to make something better.

And when I say hater, I'm not talking about people who are just being objective and giving their suggestions without so much hatred towards the thing they are criticizing. When I say hater I'm talking about pathetic people like you who hate every single move some airline ( Air Serbia in this case) does.

If it hurts you giving a couple of euros per month to Air Serbia (just like paying taxes and every other way of giving money to the country you live in), you can move out to Africa or something like that, believe me nobody will cry.

Riiiight... of course I am pathetic for opposing Dane & co. behaving as if the Serbian public is made of imbeciles. They are walking around pretending Air Serbia is some sort of Lufthansa when they would be bankrupt the very moment subsidies would run out and the moment they would have to pay their bills to the airport. It's been two years since the airline was launched and the situation is far from being perfect and in many regards it did get worse.

I am well informed which is why I am writing this. And your comparison of JU and other carriers that operate into the US is pathetic. No other airline started these flights with a fleet composed of less than 20 aircraft. Many bigger and better airlines have failed to makes these flights work and so will JU. They are having a hard time making some of their European flights work even less these ones. I mean, they got butchered by LO to WAW. Shall I remind you that LF to WAW was around 40% last year? These bad results were achieved despite the airline having a much larger network than it has now. Compare OS' and LO's connectivity for their JFK flights and then do the same with JU.

And who said that I am only angry that my money goes to JU? I am angry that my taxes are used to keep alive all these failed state companies. If JU doesn't become self-sufficient by the end of 2016 then they are no better than Zelezara or even Jat. Sure, the service is better than Jat's and all that but I would rather have a profitable airline with a minimal service than a pompous one that is alive thanks to my cash.

Also, your reference to Africa is insulting and it only goes to show how primitive you are... especially since you are using such vocabulary.

JU is subsidized by Serbia, but how much indirectly does JU return to Serbia?

Remember it is Jelen beer served on board (Serbian company), it is Serbian wines served on board (Serbia again), rakija in business class is from Rakija bar (again, a Serbian business), Air Serbia Catering uses Serbian produce for the meals they prepare. Serbian companies provide water, juices, napkins, in-flight magazines, amenities for toilets etc. Then the ground staff hired, cabin crew, cleaners, baggage handlers, shops run in BEG, taxi's, GSP, hotels, food stall, shops...all services used by pax from JU going into the Serbian budget. All staff are registered, receive benefits, pay taxes and spend their money in Serbia. And the list goes on.

Having said that, Serbian Foreign Ministry works on improving relations with other countries to facilitate new air agreements, possible even visa waivers (possibly soon Thailand and UAE), which in turn is a plus for the Serbian traveler.

Lets not mention the massive increases in cargo in BEG the past couple of years, and cargo tends to bring more money. The B747F is a frequent visitor in BEG taking Serbian exports to the world. This is good for our economy, our jobs, our industry. Serbia has a lot to gain in investing into it Aviation sector, however the investments at the same time are not equal on all ends. JU shows encouraging figures however BEG doesn't, no proper plan for the future, whilst ZAG, DBV and SPU are building new terminals, IST a whole new massive airport, need I say more?

OK, so you gave us yet another fine and long political speech. Well done. I am sure you will make it into parliament very soon. Now, since this happens to be an aviation blog, do you by any miracle have anything to say about AVIATION or - god forbid - something that is actually related to today's news update?

Aviation is a big business with a serious impact on any given economy, even more so when it is (partly) owned by the state. So, discussing aviation business has to involve politics, lobbying, subsidies, permits, tax issues and more.

If you want to talk technical aspects of aviation, like how aerodynamics work, sure, politics has no place there. But excluding it here would be just too naive.

@1:37God you are talking about politics much more than about aviation.

1) They are not acting as if Air Serbia is some sort of Lufthansa. They are just trying to make the airline profitable. They got 11 new planes in just two years, they opened many new routes and improved passenger numbers by 70%, that's all that Vucic and the others have said, I didn't hear them saying "Hey Air Serbia is the new Lufthansa". And I don't even see what does Vucic and the others have to do with aviation, they are politicians, od course they will be going around and talking bullshit, it's their job, fucking deal with it and grow up already. But of course negative people like you do not seem to understand it.

2) I don't understand this "Hey they failed well we will too let's just not even try to fly to the US and wait until airlines in region like Aegean and TAROM do it and then lose the possibility to enter the US market" logic. If everyone would have that kind of attitude today we wouldn't have companies like Turkish, Qatar Airways and so on. What the fuck? Of course Aegean's network is much bigger than Air Serbia's but that is exactly why they shouldn't wait for them to start flights to the US, considering Greek diaspora, the number of American tourists in Greece,and potential transfer pax Air Serbia would be completely blown away by Aegean.And everybody knows JFK flights are not going to make money until 2018 (the most optimistic scenario actually), but I really don't see problem with government financing them until they start making money, it's logical and the best solution.

3) Interesting how you said '...the service is better and everything but...' like "yeah they have a much better service than Jat, one of the best in Eastern Europe actually but who gives a fuck, let's come back to the 'this is bad for Air Serbia' and 'they are not profitable' thing, because I surely know how to run an airline and I would turn a company with millions of debts into a profitable one in 2 years like abracadabra!". Stop acting as if state-financing is something which exists only in Serbia, many countries do this and there is no other way to make an airline like Air Serbia profitable, at least not until it can stand on its own feet. When will it be, 2016 or 2030 I don't know.

And the way you would rather have a small airline with poor service which is profitable than having a big player which was financed by the government until it stood up on its feet is just something I will not even make a comment about, but it gave me physical pain and cancer.

When I see people in Serbia thinking like you, I start thinking Serbs like you don't even deserve everything they have 'cause obviously the only thing you know is bitching around and not even giving some suggestion, especially the ones like you who talk about something (in this case aviation) without even knowing anything about it just to look smart and 'not naive'.

'I don't even see what does Vucic and the others have to do with aviation,'

Well, for a start they keep on forcing JU to fly to destinations such as New York or Banja Luka. So when Vucic decides to stay out of civil aviation I will stop speaking about him. There is nothing about growing up, I think you need to calm down and control your frustrations.

Make money until 2018? Hahahah are you for real? That route will not make money until 2025 given the fact that regional network won't be improved and that JU can't get decent slots at TLV so as to feed these JFK flights.I too don't understand your logic where you are proposing to start flying to the US before Aegean does even if the airline is lacking the proper regional network, that is frequencies and destinations to become competitive internationally. You are pathetic when you are comparing JU to TK or QR. The former is based in a country of 70+ million people, in a city that has between 10 and 17 million people, a country which is in G20 and whose government stopped meddling in aviation matters, which is not the case in Serbia. QR on the other hand is a vanity project, just like JU, the only difference is that Qatar is the richest country in the world while Serbia is among the poorest in Europe. QR is financed from the income of natural gas sales while JU is funded from the taxes of the already impovrished Serbian taxpayers.

Yes, many countries have state financing but they have it as a temporary measure for a year or two until the company is firmly on its two feet. In the EU you are allowed only one cash injection every 10 years. The issue with Serbia is that these subsidies are neverending.

No need to comment because your entire hypothesis is that JU will be profitable in some distant future and that we should all remain quiet and wait for Dane to actually become competent enough to run the circus called ASL.

Hahahah thanks for stating I know nothing after you compared JU with QR and TK and after saying that we should endlessly spend our money until some time in the future JU becomes profitable or, my favourite, that JU should rush to launch JFK flights before some other airlines do so as to make the most of it. When at this moment competition to JFK is as fierce as it gets and that JU is already late to the ball. So I think I know a thing or two more than you since I actually take more things into consideration when thinking about these North American flights.

Go and consult a shrink, you seem like you have a lot of unresolved issues. :*

If any chance on first flight?. Love to be on first return fly BEG✈JFK✈BEG. Jun is not far away. If I am lucky to have one vacant seat. Passion and hope is on my side. Rodney the traveller. BEG✈JFK✈BEG✈SYD

JAT Tehinika currently holds the license to maintain CFM-56 engines so that might be the reason for the GE powered version being chosen as mentioned earlier. Thereby it shouldn't be too difficult to get the license for the CF-6 since they belong to the same group. In the other case, if obtaining the license could prove too prohibitive, it'll probably be maintained at FCO with heavy checks done in AUH.

That's still better than from BEG to AUH although as i said obtaining the licenses at BEG would be by far the best choice and the most lucrative long-term investment. As far as i know besides Aeroflot there isn't a single licensed A330/A340 center in Eastern Europe. Line maintenance will be done in Belgrade and New York. Mind you, many airlines fly round the globe to get their maintenance done so FCO really looks like a hop round the corner. I am not sure how the investment of Mubadala into SR Technics and subsequently JAT Tehinka could possibly play into that scheme, it's still too early to say.

I fully agree and my question was not that much about costs. Just wondering if there is enough time in a week to fit in 5 rotations to JFK, line maintenance in BEG and regular maintenance in FCO. If there is enough time for all these activities then there will be no problems :)

With Wi-Fly, new fleet, new and fantastic lounge in BEG, new catering, new Business Class Air Serbia has what it takes to become something similar to Singapore Airlines for Eastern and Southern Europe in a smaller scale of course.Congratulations to everyone!

Please don't write something like that anymore, you have to say that it is the worst airline in Europe, local haters are gonna attack you now for not being one of the "this is bad for Air Serbia" guys.

@12:36"Air Serbia has what it takes to become something similar to Singapore Airlines for Eastern and Southern Europe in a smaller scale of course.Congratulations to everyone!"Where did he say that?Please go learn some proper English, the only funny thing here is you. :)

No Anon 1:25, it is very bad news for LH Group!ASL with one leased plane and without having permission yet to fly 5 times a week to JFK will harm LH, OS, LX from its very successful BEG hub and become the SQ of Europe!!!Yes LH group is panicking right now!

BEG airport number of passengers was 5% down this year.But JU was down 7%, that means that foreign airlines gained market share in BEG and JU lost.Do you have any info on which airlines gained share?Thank you.

BEG was 5% down LAST MONTH! And JU's decline was also MONTHLY and it comes from an UNCONFIRMED ANONYMOUS SOURCE! And even if it was confirmed you still cannot judge gains and losses of airlines based on figures provided for A SINGLE MONTH! You need YoY figures for that, or at least HoH.

So JU decreased flights 7% but its passengers also decreased by 7% and no improvement in load factor.Foreign airlines reduced flights by 10% but their passenger numbers were reduced only by 3%.Their load factor increased.

Spectacular news! My gratitude to the US for making this happen in time for 2016 flights, I was more than worried approval would be delayed for many months. Thank you! Best day ever for Air Serbia(so far)!

I think you need to read the news again.The US did not allowed yet Air Serbia to fly to the US. It says it needs to get FAA 129 certification process first.

And that means that probably it wont get it this year since that certification entails lengthy, multi-stage reviews beginning with the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), followed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and lastly the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

That means that ASL will have to wait even longer to start selling tickets for US and because of that its flights for 2016 will be even more loss making than they would be.

I read the actual NOAT and all other docket docs, this exemption is what Air Serbia asked for. They already started Part 129 and FAA voiced no opposition to DoT, so this news is as good as it gets. I will make an assumption that you already know this process is really technical from now on, and that FAA is well respected for its technical excellence. Every published info on Air Serbia indicates they are very focused on task at hand, they prepared well for outstanding FAA/TSA items and can use Etihad’s experience if needed. Looks like they even gave heads up to others involved in the process, for example Belgrade airport that is now catching up on items like crash tenders with elevated arm and piercing nozzles for ICAO cat 8/9, ETD detectors etc. No doubt Air Serbia and the airport will get everything done given the top priority.

There are two different approaches to seeking FAA Part 129 accreditation. One is to do it by yourself, learn on the job, save money but take a year or more to complete the process. The other is to seek professional guidance either through a USA-based law firm specializing in such matters, or an industry consultancy (“Without inside help it can be quite difficult to get hold of the right officials,” says Cremer, whose company enlisted the help of law firm Zuckert Scoutt & Rasenberger LLP of Washington DC). Assuming all your manuals are in English and your country has reasonable aviation reciprocity with the USA, this should reduce the entire process to between two and four months. “All we had to do was fill in a standard application form and send the FAA copies of our Civil Aviation Authority-approved manuals and documentation for each aircraft,” says Cremer. “They reviewed these and there was a meeting between the FAA inspectors and senior Gama personnel. Two months later the accreditation came through.” With outside help, the accelerated process is likely to cost between US$20,000 and US$40,000, but it could be more if there is much compliance work to be done within the operator's home country. It should be noted that this figure could be lowered dramatically if someone within the organization is adept in regulatory matters and able to work closely with the third party. Before the technical approval – Part 129 – begins, operators coming to the USA must obtain a foreign air carrier permit from the DOT. This gives economic authority to operate. With assistance this can be completed within a month, although you may be entitled to begin application for Part 129 while seeking your permit. There is also a provision whereby both the DOT and the FAA will permit the operator to make up to 12 commercial flights pending issuance of their permit and Part 129 approval. “This 12-flight DOT permit evidences how reasonably both the DOT and the FAA are now treating foreign commercial operators in their effort to support licensed commercial operations to the USA,” says Asper.

I cannot believe what all of you say here. Most of discussion here is political, irrational and have nothing to do with air traffic. You become boring.

Here are the facts.1. It is very good for Serbia to have this licence with or without future flights (and I did not have doubt that JFK flights will be materialised, not even 2 years ago).

2. It is questionable how those flights to JFK will be financed as there is no chance they will be profitable in near future (and trust me those 2 years planed unprofitability is more than unreal optimistic). Much bigger companies get bankrupt on long-haul flights, and Air Serbia is much too small company with modest connection possibility to perform those flights. November results shows that new strategy of cutting routes and frequencies did not bring enough positive results. And in same time was having bad influence to potential customers and connectivity in BEG. All of those are not good for opening JFK flights. But let's hope that was just permanent measurement for Winter 2015/16 and that in April, enough in advance of opening JFK, that connectivity will come to last year level and it should be even better for support feeding JFK flights. If not I don't see good future for JFK LF and financial performance. And JFK is not BUD or some other EU flights where you lose just few hundred thousand EUR. That can cost lot of millions per year just on those 5 flights per day.

3. I do agree with JATMELBEG that there are lot of benefits in those flights from BEG, and especially JFK is a huge benefit for Serbia. But let me point one more time, it is all about mathematics, it is all about if those subventions and investments in JU makes more benefits to Serbia than that money for investment is. My personal opinion is that countries should finance air traffic as it is today strategic economical field, like railways was 150 years ago, and that all those EU ban for subvention in air traffic is nothing but neo-colonialism for benefit of EUB3 (LH, BA and AF). But in same time those flights should not be political motivated and should make benefits to Serbia bigger than investment. Just to make example. Podgorica - JFK would make huge benefits for Montenegro, but is there any financial logic to open that route. I thing that BEG-JFK is not logical and will make questionable all Air Serbia project. And there was no reason to make this huge risk in this moment. Of course one have to ask himself if it would be even more risk to wait for TAROM and Aegean to open JFK flights what will happen in near future. That is why someone is CEO of JU and ministers in GoS and have to make that decision and to be responsible for that decision.

But, in same time huge congratulation to Serbia for this brave move, hope they will finance JFK flights next few years because if they stop now or in few years it will be catastrophic for company. And special congratulations to get licence because we all know what huge job that is and especially in light of MEB3 problems with USA and side problems JU and Serbia had because of that.

Firstly, great comment above and thanks for the kind words. As you said, its agree to disagree, but in the end its a forum, that is to discuss ideas and different views and perspectives, which is difficult to do here.

Mathematically, I think JU has increased its share it contributes to Serbia, regardless of the fact that subsidies have increased. The fact it has increased is a positive sign, which I might add is not common in Serbia lately to see.

Talking on numbers, JU at the moment influences on 8.700 jobs directly, whilst indirectly on another 24.000. In 2014 Air Serbia catering prepared over 2 million pax meals, using 42 tonnes of cheese, 51 tonnes of meat and fish, served more than 2 million bottles of water and 53.000 bottles of wine, all coming from Serbia. Rakija served is from Rakija bar, water is Aqua Viva, Knjaz Milos was used until recently, again all suppliers Serbian. Podrum Radovanovic is one of the suppliers of wines for JU, again from Serbia. JU contributes quite a significant amount to the Serbian economy.

Again on numbers, JU has over 40.000 people enlisted in its frequent flyer program, with 400 new members each week joining the program at BEG, as well as a further 200 onboard. The new business class lounge facility in BEG is great. Wifi and AeroMobile onboard is again an added extra. So loyalty to the JU brand has increased and still is increasing.

I worry that BEG will hamper JU in expanding with its incompetent management who has done little since the rise of ASL. A lot is lacking in BEG to make it more comfortable for its users. Is it time for JFK, no, for the simple reason being that more can be done in improving what they currently have and don't have in the region. However, I do see A3, AB, AZ and EY code sharing on the flights, possibly RO and maybe JP. RO have issues in consolidating their fleet (small mix of A318 and B737 is not efficient), I wonder how their ATR42's work for them, whilst CLF is poor (66% for 2014). I don't see them expanding out long haul any time soon. As for A3, they seem focused more on what JU should be doing, that is creating a decent hub in ATH before venturing out. However, they also have more long haul competition at ATH compared to JU at BEG. All in all, I think there is room for more players in the Balkans as a whole and JU will be filling in a gap.

Come on if you have direct flight from VIE, how much lower must be price of ticket that someone will be motivate to use it instead of direct flight. Also there is question of connection time and that is at least 3 hours one way + 2 hours more flights (VIE-BEG and then extra flight time for distance from BEG to JFK which is longer than from VIE). And if price of ticket would be 100 EUR less to motivate potential passengers to use connection vie east what will be yield on that flight where you have discount and where you have one more extra leg.

VIE 10:45 – 14:45 JFK 18:00 – 08:25 VIE, so it is 20:25 hours for rotation with 2 hours turnaround, so 22 hours for BEG is real. 1:30 turnaround for long-haul is not real. 1:45-2:00 is minimum.

One simple qustion. Why would I fly from Ljubljana to JFK overBGD? Just in case that it would spare me more money and time as to go there over ZRH, MUC,VIE,AMS,CDG,FRA even CPH, TLX, WAW or in the summer HEL, ARN? Timming and the price should be the only what would be the trigger to use ASL.

From my perspective, 2016 might be the best year for JU to launch longhaul. I think you will agree that the transatlantic market is extremely difficult to enter, and 2016 is perhaps the most ideal year for new entrants since before 9/11.

Demand is huge but costs of fuel are low. Every airline is enjoying great margins.

@ JATBEGMELAegean will start with long-haul, it is already announced. For sure not in next two years but in period shorter than 5 years that is for sure!

TAROM announced long-haul also. For sure they will not go to that adventure with their ancient A310-300. Is it real, I don't thing so, but here is their announcement from 19th October 2015: "The Bucharest-based carrier only operates short-haul European services and a route to Dubai, having withdrawn from long-haul markets in 2003, and Heinzmann notes that with Romania as a whole lacking any long-haul routes, starting intercontinental services would be "a big advantage". However, direct connections and "good timings" would be crucial, he acknowledges.

Heinzmann says Tarom is evaluating the possible acquisition of long-haul aircraft, including the Airbus A330 and Boeing 787, as part of a wider fleet renewal programme".

Why I think the afternoon departure is better is because AZ and AB both have their flights in the morning, where as JU would 'compliment' their partner airlines, ie: offering more flexibility in the EY network.

Second, the first Balkan wave is just after midday, the second after midnight. Self explanatory.

I'm from Dubrovnik and I'm flying to New York 1-2 times per year, but I won't be using Air Serbia for 2 reasons: don't wanna go "back" to BEG and then fly to NY; I have enough money to afford other carriers and fly via London, Paris or other Western European cities

Still, wish Air Serbia good luck, I'm sure people will use it, it's a great opportunity for Serbia and all its passengers!

To go back? That going back is less than half an hour and nothing compared to the detours used in most of cases via IST or even DOH. Don't talk BS. If the price is lower and connecting times right of course you'll fly or you'll fly very high.

Going with your comment, A3 is still in the short to mid term planning their transatlantic operations. At the same time they are growing at a fast pace which is incredible. Which is a positive note I mentioned in my comment above when compared to JU, who has downsized temporarily to boost CLF, but as you say may do more harm than good. But in the mean time, I do see A3 possibly codesharing with JU to JFK as they currently do with BEG, ZAG and LJU.

As for RO, they need a lot of improvement to follow up on. They are losing out to Blue Air and Wizz who have a sizeable base in OTP, are growing, and I am sure better CLF and other figures. RO has been making losses the past several years whilst in the same time had revenue decrease, as well as downsizing the number of employees. Even JU who is of a similar size, and I would think in a better position currently, there is many skepticism towards the start up of long haul. JU has a better CLF, more pax with less ac, a hub system already in BEG which is working with potential to grow further. RO will need a good shake up similar to the one seen with Jat Airways transformation to Air Serbia.

JATBEGMEL, thank you for your great input as always. As you rightly made mention, the most worrying fact about JU aren't the subsidies but that JU doesn't seem to take any notice of what Aegean's been doing, which is precisely what ASL should have done for the past year. We shouldn't mind 10 times bigger subsidies but which are taking the airline to a path of sustainable growth rather than those leading to cuts and eventually even worse performance. However, we yet have to see how the medium-long term strategy is gonna play-out and whether the launch of New York flights will prove to be the necessary if not much needed catalyst for Air Serbia to consolidate its regional, Eastern and Middle-Eastern networks.

partily agree with you:+ costs of fuel are low+ starting of flights much before Aegean, TAROM or flights to Zagreb (that will not happened in near future) to make position in market before them+ use of expansion and business climate in Serbia

Anon at 6:38, agreed. Almost every major airport and several airlines in the region wanted flights to the USA for decades. JAT intended to get 767 for own flights; current Croatia Airlines CEO listed long haul as a goal (see Sept 7, 2014 ex yu av news); PRN, BEG and ZAG all had some connectivity in the last 10-15 years to USA or Canada, even DBV and SKP have long haul ambition. Current PM in Serbia has nothing to do with all those events. Ex yu region has a need to connect with North America.